


eye of the hurricane

by Doranwen



Series: a world less than I'd like it to be [7]
Category: Alphas (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Other Ships Not Mentioned in Tags, Post-Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-14
Updated: 2018-07-14
Packaged: 2019-06-10 04:58:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15284181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Doranwen/pseuds/Doranwen
Summary: The storm is a moment of calm in the hurricane of their new world.





	eye of the hurricane

"Where's this one going?" Bill asked as he attempted to keep his grasp on the dresser he was carrying. Enhanced strength didn't help with the grip, unfortunately.

"Over there," said Gary, pointing at the designated spot. "Right next to the bed."

Bill set it down as directed, and turned back to him. "And how many more of these are there?"

"There's still the one in my room, and then two from Rachel and Nina's room," he informed Bill.

"Great," Bill said with a sigh, walking out of the conference room.

Across the room, Zoe ran up to Rachel. "There's 9,402.7 fluid ounces of water stored," Zoe informed her. "That's 73.4586 gallons."

Rachel smiled at the little girl. "Well, we need a gallon of water per person per day."

"Then we have enough for 8.162066 days," Zoe said. "I rounded."

"That's very good, Zoe," said Rosen. "Can you figure out the amount of dry rice and beans we have stored?"

"OK," Zoe said, running back to the stored food in the next room.

"I'm beginning to understand a whole new reason why Skylar brought her here—to use up her energy on us instead of her mother!" Rachel said with a little smile.

"She does seem to have an endless supply of it, doesn't she?" Rosen commented. "Now, while Zoe double-checks, how are we doing on the supplies overall?"

Rachel tilted her head, considering the query. "We've got plenty of food and water, plus basic medical supplies and other miscellaneous items. We don't have as much fuel as I'd like for the propane stove, but Skylar said she'd build something as soon as the storm died down. That and a few generators, which would let us keep the freezers and fridges in the school running."

Rosen nodded. "Toilet facilities?"

"Rudimentary chamberpot for now. Cameron thinks he remembers seeing a porta-potty when he was looking at buildings with Skylar, so he's gone out to try and locate it for Bill to bring back. We can't use it during the hurricane but if we fasten it down so it doesn't blow away, we'll have an option for afterwards." She wrinkled her nose at the thought.

"Hopefully that won't be necessary for long," said Rosen. He looked over at the sound of Zoe running back into the room. "I'll let you come up with more things for her to count," he told Rachel with a hint of a smile as he turned away.

He walked to his office and took a look around. The bed had already been removed to the conference room—with fresh sheets on it. He'd only slept on it twice at this point, and the two nights couldn't be more different. The first night after waking up to Parish's new world, he had lain on his bed staring at the ceiling for hours, wondering what he could have done differently to stop this. He had failed Dani, but that didn't even compare to the millions who had died in the past week. The team had spared him from seeing the bodies as much as possible, but it didn't help.

He had been drowning in the guilt and grief, barely able to keep from projecting his feelings onto everyone else. But last night… Nina had given him something very precious. He didn't remember her leaving; he'd slept soundly till the next morning. His world didn't look any brighter, but some of the weariness had lifted, and that seemed to help some.

He pulled out a cloth sack from a drawer and began to put in the few things he wanted with him during the storm. They had less than six hours before it began, and there was still much to accomplish.

* * *

"It's getting nasty out there," Cameron said as he entered the conference room, brushing his head to shake off water droplets.

"You're getting me wet!" complained Gary.

"Sorry," Cameron said, stepping away from Gary.

"How's the wind?" Rosen asked.

"Getting stronger by the minute; I wouldn't go outside now if I were you," Cameron said with a shake of his head.

"I don't want to go outside; I'm trying to finish downloading all the videos Dr. Rosen asked me to," said Gary.

"Well, the room is secured, so we might as well gather in here," Rosen said. He went to the doorway and leaned his head out. "Bill, I think it looks good, you can leave it."

Bill gave one last experimental rap against the wood façade they'd built that morning to protect the conference room's glass walls, just in case. "Seems sound, let's hope we don't need it."

"Kat?" Rosen called.

"Yeah," Kat called back. She walked down the hallway holding a laptop and power cord. "I'm still watching through the videos Gary found on the training facility's computers."

Rosen nodded. "You can keep going on that as long as we have power. After that, we should preserve what battery life there is for emergencies."

Kat passed Rosen as she entered the room. She settled onto her bed, plugging in the laptop and inserting earbuds in her ears.

"Nina? Where's Nina?" Rosen asked. He looked over at Rachel, who was sitting on their bed, book in hand.

"She was grabbing a few last-minute things, I think," said Rachel. She glanced over at Skylar with a question in her eyes. Skylar shrugged and drew another line on the paper where she and Zoe were playing a game.

"Nina?" Rosen called down the hallway. He turned back to the room. "Gary, is Nina in the building?"

Gary flicked his fingers for a moment. "Yeah, she's coming up from the storeroom now. Down the hallway. She'll be here in a little bit."

Gary was accurate as usual; less than a minute later, Nina strode in with a bag in hand. _Sorry_ , she signed to the team. _Forgot I wanted this._ She dropped the bag beside her and Rachel's bed, and situated herself.

"So now what do we do?" asked Cameron.

"We wait," said Rosen. "The storm isn't likely to die down till later this evening, so we have quite a few hours to spend here."

Cameron sighed. "Great."

Nina tapped Rachel on the shoulder. _You want to practice signing?_ she signed.

Rachel smiled, putting a bookmark in her book. "We could always practice signing," she said loudly enough for the room to hear. "Otherwise it's going to get where Nina will sign something and no one will understand her because we haven't practiced enough." She glanced over at Kat, who seemed absorbed in her video.

Appearances could be deceiving, however. Without looking up from the video Kat signed, _Practice. I'll help if you need it._

Rachel processed the signs slowly, then nodded. "Let's review the alphabet first, then we'll stick with signing or fingerspelling everything."

"I have to finish downloading these videos," said Gary.

"It's OK, Gary, if you have time to watch and learn, great, but if not, just keep doing what you need to do," Rachel reassured him.

As they began spelling out A, B, C, Nina glanced over at Rosen. Breakfast had been a hurried affair, with no time to spend one-on-one, and she wasn't ready to proclaim her actions to the rest of the team. Rachel knowing was bad enough. But she couldn't find it in herself to regret them. She had no doubt that otherwise, Rosen would be ready to crack today. His mood was still subdued, much as it had been since Dani had died, but the crushing weight in his eyes had lifted somewhat, and she hadn't felt any emotions slipping from his control so far. His gaze met hers, and a little smile came to his lips. She returned it, then refocused herself on the alphabet.

* * *

Zoe's hands waved to interrupt, and she signed something so fast that Rachel had to shake her head.

 _Slowly_ , signed Rachel.

Zoe sighed and began again, this time at the beginner's pace the others could follow. _All of us are going to fly on a plane to Las Vegas?_ Her fingers spelled the city's name at a rapid pace; if they hadn't previously been talking about it, Rachel would've found it hard to keep up. Enhanced vision didn't mean she could slow down what she saw.

Rosen caught Zoe's attention, then signed, haltingly, _Had you learned sign language before coming here?_

 _No._ Zoe looked a little puzzled at the question.

At that moment, the power died with a groan, as all the humming throughout the building ceased, except for the laptops Gary and Kat were on. The room plunged into darkness, illuminated only by the glare of the laptop screens.

"I got all the videos you asked for, Dr. Rosen, but I was in the middle of downloading another one," Gary said.

"It's OK, Gary, just shut it down for now."

Kat was already closing the video she'd been watching, and the laptops were soon stowed away.

"Well, I guess we're done with the signing for now," said Rosen. "We'll have to just talk."

Nina felt behind her, propping up some pillows to lean against the wall. She was startled to feel Rachel scooting back to lean against her right shoulder. Rachel drew one of Nina's arms across her stomach, resting a hand on Nina's lightly. "Without light, the only way you can communicate is fingerspelling into a hand," Rachel stated quietly.

Nina's fingers twitched for a second, but lacking a specific message, she settled for using her free hand to run through Rachel's hair for a moment.

"Zoe, I'm going to say something for a bit. See if you can understand me at all, OK?" Rosen asked.

"OK," said Zoe.

Rosen's next words were not in a language that Nina knew. He said what sounded like several sentences, then asked a question at the end. Nina blinked when she heard Zoe's voice answering hesitantly in the same language.

"There wasn't enough for me to get the last word right," she told Rosen.

"Hmm, what if I say these next couple sentences? See if that helps." He spoke two more sentences in the same language.

"Oh," Zoe exclaimed, repeating her answer with a few more words.

"Did it help?" Rosen asked.

"Yeah."

"Dr. Rosen, what language was that?" Skylar asked, her voice a little tense.

"Swahili," Rosen answered. "I said a few sentences in it, and then asked Zoe a question. She was able to answer partially because I had used most of the words and word forms that she needed, but the last word used a grammatical particle that wasn't in my first sentences. So when I said a few sentences that used that particle, she was able to put it together and say the answer correctly. Tell me, has Zoe heard any other languages recently?"

"No, all she's heard was English," said Skylar. "The last time she heard another language was at the camp; some of the Alphas were from Quebec. But I've never heard her say anything in French."

"Then I suspect this is a side effect of the photostim. Quantitative aptitude is closely related to pattern recognition and analysis, and languages are accessible via patterns," Rosen said.

"Oh, you're like Anna, Zoe," said Gary. "She was my friend. She could understand any language."

"Yes, Gary, she does seem to have some similarity in that ability," Rosen agreed.

"So you suspected she could do this from the signing, and decided to just test her ability to see if you were right," Skylar said in a biting tone. "You just can't resist, can you? We're all just pawns with you. Too bad you're a lousy chess player."

A sharp arrow of pain shot through Nina and withdrew as quickly as it came. She could feel Rachel turning towards her. "That was Rosen, wasn't it?" Rachel whispered to Nina.

 _Y-E-S_ , Nina spelled back. Rachel's hand squeezed hers.

"But that's really neat," said Gary. "It's cool to understand languages. I don't understand other human languages, but I can understand electronic ones. And I can hear stars, but they don't say anything I can understand."

Oh, Gary. Nina smiled despite herself.

"Gary, I think she's upset because Dr. Rosen didn't ask permission to test Zoe, and Skylar's Zoe's mother," suggested Cameron.

"Oh, but the test can't hurt her, and now she knows. It's important to know," Gary informed them.

Rachel cleared her throat. "Why don't I tell a story that my—", her voice faltered for a bit, then strengthened as Nina squeezed her hand, "—my father used to tell me when I was your age, Zoe. Everyone else can listen too. Do you want to hear it? It's about a man who became a fortune-teller."

"OK," said Zoe.

"There was once a man…" Rachel began, and Nina settled back to listen.

* * *

Rosen pressed a button on his watch to light it up and check the time. A little past 10 p.m. They had all taken turns telling a story to the others (except for Nina) and eaten the sandwiches Rachel had made for supper, after which everyone had drifted off to their own devices. Kat and Bill each had flashlights they were using to read books. Rachel seemed to be whispering to Nina, who was no doubt fingerspelling her replies. Rosen mused that had he ever wished for Nina's ability, that desire was no longer, seeing the handicap she now labored under when it came to communication. Gary and Zoe had both gone to sleep, and Skylar seemed to be doing something with a gadget of hers, he wasn't sure what.

Cameron returned from venturing outside. "Looks like it's dying down some," he whispered to Rosen. "I'm going to have Bill move our makeshift toilet to the bathroom down the hall. Kat found a couple battery-powered nightlights somewhere, so no one gets lost."

"All right," said Rosen quietly. "I'd ask Skylar to reconnect the generators for backup power, but… I have a feeling it might be best to conserve our power generation to the devices that need it. The freezers and fridges will be fine until tomorrow morning."

"Sounds good, doc." Cameron whispered a few words to Bill, and the two men soon exited the room with the chamberpot.

Rosen sensed rather than heard a form come towards his bed, then sit on the edge of it. "Nina?" he whispered. A hand slipped into his and squeezed, then tried to form letters. He could only make out O and K, but it was enough for a guess. "If you're asking if I'm OK, then yes," he whispered to her. He found himself pulled into a hug. And while he had not been lying, the truth was that the kiss she gave him after that grounded him and relaxed him all at the same time. She squeezed his hand once more, and moved away from his bed. He caught himself yawning and decided that there was no point in staying up. Being well-rested was a significant factor in overall well-being, and tomorrow would demand as much of him as ever.


End file.
